Day: March 12, 2019

Nigerian sports fans love nothing more than bragging rights. It’s why, beyond celebrating their national teams and athletes, they are also typically quick to “claim” (or “famz,” in local parlance) any sports star with even a hint of Nigerian heritage.

But so far, there has been no similar levels of “Naija” affinity for basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo, one of this year’sleading favoritesfor the NBA’s coveted Most Valuable Player award. Antetokounmpo, born in Greece to Nigerian immigrants, has been the driving force of a Milwaukee Bucks team that holds the league’s best record and has confounded critics.

A Ghanaian Professor, Wisdom Tettey, has been installed as the Vice President and Principal of the University of Toronto-Scarborough in the largest city of Canada. He is the first Black person to head the campus.His installation took place at the Scarborough campus of the University of Toronto amidst academic pageantry with the blasting of Ghanaian traditional song in the background. The ceremony was well attended by dignitaries and academia including the Vice Chancellor, academic staff, students and family members/representatives from the Toronto Ghanaian community.

Magdalene Menyongar’s day starts with a 5:30 a.m. conference call with women from her church. They pray together as Menyongar makes breakfast and drives to work, reflecting on everything they are thankful for.

But lately, the prayers have turned to matters of politics and immigration. They pray with increasing urgency for Congress or President Trump to act before Menyongar, 48, faces deportation to her native Liberia, where she fled civil war nearly 25 years ago.

In less than six weeks, the order that has allowed her and more than 800 other immigrants from the former American colony in West Africa to live in the United States for decades will end, the result of Trump’s decision last year to terminate a program that every other president since George H.W. Bush supported.

Come March 31, Menyongar will face a choice: Return to Liberia and leave behind her 17-year-old daughter, an American citizen, or stay in the United States, losing her work authorization and becoming an undocumented immigrant.

Ghanaians in Georgia celebrated Ghana’s 62nd Independence in grand style at the Hyatt Regency Perimeter at Villa Christina on March 9, 2019.

The theme for this year’s celebration is Sustainable Progress which was chosen to highlight the continued support for projects in Ghana that are initiated by member Associations of the Ghanaian Community in Georgia.

In recognition of the work that the Ghanaian community in Georgia, the Mayor of Macon-Bibb County in Georgia declared Saturday March 9, 2019 Ghana day in Macon.

Like this:

Ottawa professor Pius Adesanmi, one of the 18 Canadians killed in Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash, is being remembered as a public intellectual whose outreach to Africans across the globe shaped the way Canada is seen abroad.

The Nigerian-born scholar was on his way to a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, when the jet went down shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa airport, killing all 157 aboard.

The death of the director of Carleton University’s Institute of African Studies sent shockwaves through the academic community and on social media, where Adesanmi was mourned by a “cult following” of more than 40,000 Twitter users, said Nduka Otiono, a fellow Carleton professor and Adesanmi’s friend of 25 years.

The United States has urged African governments to improve their business environments to better attract major American investment. The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, made the comments during a four-nation tour of Africa.

The U.S. diplomat says many American businesses want to invest in Africa. But, Tibor Nagy says they first need to first see a more positive investment environment.

“Which means, minimum levels of corruption, fair treatment, honoring contract and quite frankly a good governance environment because that’s what American businesses want,” Nagy said.Nagy made the comments after meeting Friday with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on the first leg of his four-nation African tour.